Catching a breakaway

I have been hooked on to watching Cycling.

What amazes me is that a breakaway can occur, now some of these breakaways
get a 5 to 10 minute lead.

I am talking elite tour riders, now these guys are super fit, all of them
are.

So I am amazed that the peleton can catch a breakaway that has a 10 minute
lead.

On Tue, 1 Feb 2005 20:42:22 +1000, Tony wrote:

So I am amazed that the peleton can catch a breakaway that has a 10 minute
lead.

Why? Given roughly the same level of individual ability, a larger group
will always eventually catch a smaller one thanks to more drafting. But
sometimes the finish line intervenes :-)

--
bpo gallery at http://www4.tpgi.com.au/users/mvw1/bpo

Tony Wrote:
I have been hooked on to watching Cycling.

What amazes me is that a breakaway can occur, now some of thes
breakaways
get a 5 to 10 minute lead.

I am talking elite tour riders, now these guys are super fit, all o
them
are.

So I am amazed that the peleton can catch a breakaway that has a 1
minute
lead.

It´s amazing just how hard the the peloton can go when they want to bu
its not that amazing i dont feel when they catch a breakaway
Breakaway´s can be doomed right from the start and riders in it wil
know. Alot of the time they are let go because the riders are up ther
getting airtime and advertising the teams sponsers. Depending on wha
teams/team are chasing and what for they will have lots of reasonabl
fresh riders, who have saved energy riding in the bunch, mostly out o
the wind, whoes job it is to get on the front and ride a bloody fas
tempo to catch a breakaway. Instead the breakaway have been going a
hard as they can most of the race, they have been out in the win
taking lots of turns each and are hurting big time.

A good example like at the Tour for instance would be a flat stage fo
the sprinter´s. Maybe the peloton let a break of 5 or 6 guys go the
the break eventually gets a lead of 8 mins to 10 mins. Now th
sprinters like McEwen, Boonen, Petacchi (not to mention othe
sprinters) think ok i want this stage under control they will just sen
team mates to the front who then really give it full gas taking turn
off the front. Some of these teams will have 7 or 8 guys ready to d
this, now add to that 3 or 4 other teams contributing riders an
working together you have alot of horsepower there to mowdown th
breakaway. Teams do mess it up though and breaks make it all the wa
but mostly the break is kept in some sorta check. Its really mor
amazing if breakaways make it to the finish.

I know this might be difficult but if you ever get a chance watch las
years Paris Tours race. Won by a constant attacking Dekker in
breakaway. It was pretty amazing and probably the best racing moment o
the year. Teams not taking enough control, some unwilling to work
attacks, a crash, lots of drama .


'or read the race report' (http://tinyurl.com/6dag8

--
oely

oely wrote:
Its really more amazing if breakaways make it to the finish.

Yeah. It's even harder for breaks to succeed in the tour (compared to
club racing) because the teams _know_ how far up the road the break is
and often how good the breakaway riders are. Win in a break in the tour
you are a legend!

You will often hear Phil and Paul talk about the 10k/10min rule(?). I
think that if the break has less than 10k's to go and the peloton is
more than 10min behind - the break will likely succeed? (someone correct
me if you know the theory).

Club racing doesn't have the radios, tv coverage, team directors and
race intelligence to be able to control the breaks so much. Once the
break is out of sight it has a better chance than a tdf break does.

hippy
- sticking with bunch sprints from now on

hippy Wrote:
oely wrote:
Its really more amazing if breakaways make it to the finish.

Yeah. It's even harder for breaks to succeed in the tour (compared to
club racing) because the teams _know_ how far up the road the break is
and often how good the breakaway riders are. Win in a break in th
tour
you are a legend!

You will often hear Phil and Paul talk about the 10k/10min rule(?). I
think that if the break has less than 10k's to go and the peloton is
more than 10min behind - the break will likely succeed? (someon
correct
me if you know the theory).

Club racing doesn't have the radios, tv coverage, team directors and
race intelligence to be able to control the breaks so much. Once the
break is out of sight it has a better chance than a tdf break does.

hippy
- sticking with bunch sprints from now on

Are there crit racing circuits with a hill that could create some sort
winning selection? Im hoping to get into some as low a grade as possibl
racing when/if i return to Aus and i can´t sprint for ****, will thi
mean id never stand a chance of winning? or will i need to pay off som
stronger riders to get in a break with me

--
oely

oely wrote:
Are there crit racing circuits with a hill that could create some sorta
winning selection? Im hoping to get into some as low a grade as possible
racing when/if i return to Aus and i can´t sprint for ****, will this
mean id never stand a chance of winning? or will i need to pay off some
stronger riders to get in a break with me?



one word.. one hill.. Kew... oh and they sprint up the hill to the finish :|

Not much chance of tonights Kew crit going ahead, hasnt stopped raining
for about 15hrs and there is no clear sky in sight

cheers,
GPL

oely wrote:
Are there crit racing circuits with a hill that could create some sorta
winning selection? Im hoping to get into some as low a grade as possible
racing when/if i return to Aus and i can´t sprint for ****, will this
mean id never stand a chance of winning? or will i need to pay off some
stronger riders to get in a break with me?

If you can't sprint, racing crits is gonna mean lots of losing. But,
hey, I'm supposed to be able to sprint and I lose all the time!!

There's always winter road racing where power/weight is much more
important for the hilly circuits. Leaner, stronger climbing type guys
often 'tend' to do better in these.

Kew Crits, assuming you're returning to Melbourne, have the largest hill
of any of the circuits I've seen. Nyadale Drive (I think) has a *******
uphill finish too.

hippy

hippy Wrote:
oely wrote:
Are there crit racing circuits with a hill that could create som
sorta
winning selection? Im hoping to get into some as low a grade a
possible
racing when/if i return to Aus and i can´t sprint for ****, wil
this
mean id never stand a chance of winning? or will i need to pay of
some
stronger riders to get in a break with me?

If you can't sprint, racing crits is gonna mean lots of losing. But,
hey, I'm supposed to be able to sprint and I lose all the time!!

There's always winter road racing where power/weight is much more
important for the hilly circuits. Leaner, stronger climbing type guys
often 'tend' to do better in these.

Kew Crits, assuming you're returning to Melbourne, have the larges
hill
of any of the circuits I've seen. Nyadale Drive (I think) has
*******
uphill finish too.

hippy

The Oakville course that Parramatta CC uses has a bit of up and down
usually a small break will get away (though not a solo break). Yo
don't always need hills though, Heffron Park seems to get its fai
share of successful breaks/splits when it's windy. The course is quit
exposed to wind and splits in the bunch can get hard to close down.

When I think back to last year, I won a C-grade race at Marconi with
break of three that took off around a lap and a half to go (about 5k
per lap). It wasn't super hilly, but it had a bit of up and down.

Ahh, past glories...

Ritc

--
ritcho